Mutuna's
face was expressionless even after the greatest event of her life when
she entered her field of one acre for the first time after 1976 when
her husband Furtidin was given land entitlement by the then prime minister
Indira Gandhi. She never knew about the place as since then they tried
to occupy their land but the powerful neighbors wont allow them to map.
In fact, Mutuna's issue reflect the dilemma of India's farmers movement
which not only remained caged in tainted caste structure of the powerful
upper castes but highly violent also. On August 11 th August, 2007 when
I witnessed the whole thing, many memories of the past reminded me how
the land issue would always remain violent and volatile as it affect
the local power equations, unite the oppressed and give them dignity
and self respect. It also shows how the powerful communities try to
circumvent and subvert the due process of law by delaying and disturbing
the entire process.

Ramchandra, eldest son of
Furtidin informed me how the local powerful people are still creating
hurdle. On the first ay when the land was being measured, I personally
asked the women to take control over the land immediately as they would
be trapped in saying 'come tomorrow'. Do not wait for another day, I
said to them. But the question was that the local Yadava (a powerful
farming community of northern India) family which has illegally grabbed
that land had maze crop over the land. Now, there was tension in the
area as the Dalit families wanted to occupy the land immediately while
the Yadava was taking shelter under the maze crop. Immediately, all
decided that Yadava must get away with this. The Dalit women asked Yadava
family to collect his maze crop or face its destruction. It was an amazing
site to see when a powerful exploitative family cutting their crop and
behind them were Dalit women leveling the land and making the boundary
wall of their portion. It was a great show of how things change if the
administration is with you. When the Lekhpals and others in the village
were mapping the land, there was deliberate taunting by the upper caste
Hindus and the powerful people. Virtually abusing to provoke the Dalits,
they would claim that the Dalits are lazy, as they never aspired to
get land. ' We have tilled this land, made this concrete to a workable
land, said a local Thakur. But when the land at the Yadava family's
backyard was being measured, the issues, which often comes was that
right now there was a maze crop and it would not be good to destroy
the crop. This time, the Dalits knew it very well that such pretensions
of the powerful people in the village in front of the officials results
in further complicating the issue.

Ramchandra, migrated to
bigger town as a labour has now decided to remain the village and cultivate
his land. " I am very happy to look after my land as my two other
brothers would remain in cities to earn for themselves but I will help
my family and my mother.'

This story is being written
over a period of one month. The gap was deliberate. Having worked in
deeply crisis driven condition, I know how the official switch their
loyalty and the poor has to run from pillar to post for every small
thing. Once the initial work was done and the official gone, we all
know, power elite will start creating the same hurdle. After all, how
many times, we will come and monitor the situation. But this time around,
the villagers were determined come what may and their strength were
doubled by some of the outstanding workers of Bharatiya Jan Seva Ashram,
Badlapur. Ms Renu, the fire brand women leader of the Ashram actually
faced some of the toughest questions of her life right from the officials
to rural power folks but she remained un-relented. In those trying time,
her determination yielded result and now people's control over their
land is complete, of course, there are certain problematic areas for
which the community, the individuals have decided to go to the court.

Rupchandrapur village, which
falls under Badlapur block of district Jaunpur in Eastern Uttar-Pradesh
witnessed this historic land acquisition. This village is dominated
by the Thakurs, the upper caste Hindus claiming to hail from Kshatriya
i.e. warrior clan. It also reflect how 'efficient' our administrative
system is which despite legal validity and by its own standard, it does
not follow rules of the law. In 1976, the then prime minister Mrs. Indira
Gandhi went for a massive sterilization programme and one of her issues
was to give land entitlement to not only Dalits and Muslims but also
to those who opt for the sterilization process thus adopting government's
family planning programme.

74 people were given land
entitlement in 1976 and the land was to be distributed through the village
communal land, which is called Gram Panchayat land. These days normally
land is illegally occupied by the powerful communities in the villages.
Soon, the government fell in 1979 owing to massive protest against Indira
Gandhi and the issue of entitlements of the poor Dalits remained unresolved.
The new power equations were used by the powerful communities in their
favour by forcing the officials not to visit again and provoked them
to cancel the measurement under some pretext or other. Every time, an
effort was made and equally resisted by the power elite of the village.
Every time the Dalits asked for their land, there was complete lack
of sensitivity on part of the officials who would give plenty of arguments
regarding the status of their land. Government came and go and the situation
at the ground remained unaltered.

One of the important factors
of Dalit empowerment in India is democracy. Democracy is essentially
a number game and the Dalits and other marginalized communities have
understood that their number make majority and hence all of them have
become politically very mobile and articulate at least in Uttar-Pradesh.
In May 2007 the state saw a shift in power and a Dalit woman Maywati
became the chief Minister of the state for the record fourth time.

A change in the government
in Lucknow has a lot of meaning for Dalits, particularly those women
and wage workers who have been denied dignity and human rights. With
a Dalit woman at the thrown of Uttar-Pradesh, a new wave of energy entered
into the communities. Bhartiya Jan Seva Ashram, Badlapur realized this
important change and went for an all out offensive on the issue of possession
being given to those who were allotted land. It approached the district
authorities and asked them to take action to provide land allotment
soon. In fact, this is one of the strategies used by the International
land Coalition's partners here and essentially part of SDF/UPLA's land
literacy programme to do village mapping, find vacant land and count
the rural landless of that area and do issue based advocacy. We have
found from our own experiences that issue based advocacy is far better
than a generalized form of advocacy which has all ingredients of 'political
manipulations and heavy dose of ideologies' and very less for the individuals
who suffer from incapacities and victim hood.

We have suggested on many
occasions that the organizations must have primary data of the targeted
village such as the total number of people, land status, status of landless
and homeless people with particularly reference of the communities such
as Dalits and tribals. The Community Empowerment Facility ( CEF) programme
of BJSA came handy for the same and a team of organization visited the
village several time to assess the ground situation and the status of
land both in term of illegal gratification as well as community wise
landlessness. Once they finished their paper work, it was difficult
for the authorities to deny them right as the land was already allotted
to 74 Dalit families nearly 31 years back. Government machinery often
makes use of the ignorance of the village people. By ignorance they
mean that villagers are not 'techno savvy and do not have relevant documents.
Officials are very particular about data and documents which the poor
villagers do not have.

I was fortunate enough to
witness this historical event when people really got land in their hand.
A team of 10 land revenue officials ( Lekhpals), Revenue officer, Sub
Disctrict Magistrate ( SDM) went to the village and promised the people
that the land would be handed over to them. The local power community
was also equally vehement in opposing but differences started coming
to the fore. The head of the village Mr Shiv Naraian Singh came out
openly with the Dalits and said that he would do everything to get these
people land. Shiv Narian was elected Sarpanch with a large number of
Dalit votes. The opposition was powerful. They questioned the motives
of people getting land. A local politician who could not win a single
election actually tried every attempt to thwart the land redistribution
effort. Upper castes always wanted to get the Patta cancelled. There
were several efforts made to redistribute the land but every time the
powerful people in the village created some short of issues which ultimately
restricted the authorities to go further on this issue.

Ram Bali is father of 9 children.
I acre was allotted to him in 1976. Every time they went to the officers,
nothing happened. There were efforts made in the past thrice to measure
the land but was met with stiff resistance. The upper castes and particularly
one powerful family which had controlled the entire area actually planted
trees in the hope that after such a thing happen they would have unquestioned
control over the land. When the pressure from the Dalits became tremendous
the upper castes resorted to blackmailing. This land is now gone to
the forest department. We have planted trees and we will not allow you
to uproot these trees. So one can understand the kind of pulls and pressures
happens in the village when the land is actually handed over the rural
poor. Rambali is a happy man that finally he has got justice and that
his family would be able to eat his two-time meal. We are ready to work
harder to make the land workable.

Mutuna, wife of late Furtidin
whose one acre land was actually being tilled by a Yadava family was
satisfied that finally she has got her land. She has three sons and
now she hope that the land would be sufficient enough to keep the family
going.

Temmal got allotment for
one acre. Every time efforts were made to give control of land to them
these people try to create obstacles. They would abuse us and would
not allow us to have safe passage. They have control over the work.
We do not even get work under the NREGA programme.

Village Sarpanch Shiv Narian
Singh, though is a upper caste Thakur yet seems to reconcile with working
for the rights of the Dalits. He says', The allotment were made in 1976
but the government officials are very careless. A total 51 bighas of
land was allotted that time but the powerful people of the village are
still trying to occupy that land. We want to give the small ponds and
other such land to landless people but problems are being created.

The village Lekhpal who actually
is the villain in most of the cases says that so far 48 people have
been given possession. The lekhpal also speaks like the upper castes
that the Dalits normally do not take of possession saying that the land
is a barren and useless land. But he threatens that if the Dalits do
not take the possession of land this time, he would be forced to dismiss
their entitlement.

Dulari Devi has 5 children.
She ahs been waiting for this day to come as the upper caste Hindus
do not allow her to reach her land. Land is bad in shape. Lot of weed
has surrounded it and it would need tremendous will power to make the
land working. But the positive side is that the Dalits are now doing
work in their land, weeding out the trees and the grass, leveling the
land. It will take time but definitely with the enthusiasm, it will
not take much effort.

Ram Charan is very happy
to get the land after 30 years. He plan to sow Arahar, Tori, and other
vegetables.

Sangeeta says that she is
a 'Dalit' and landless. She has six other male members as partner in
her father in laws land. It is just one 10 th of a bighead very miniscule
piece of land. She is not very happy with that. The food situation at
her house is understandably very bad.

Munni Lal has two sons and
one daughter. Nearly 30 years later he is now taking control of a very
bad land which has thorny bushes and lengthy weed. He knows it well
that to refuse taking control of an otherwise waste land would mean
giving the upper castes a chance to condemn them as if they do not want
it. He says, " My allotment letter gives me one acre of land which
is to be distributed among the two brothers but we only got 50 decimal.
It will take nearly take a month to level the land and make it workable'.

Chandrabhan, a Dalit youth
working with Bhartiya Jan Seva Ashram is another happy person today.
Born in a landless family, he and his brothers were not even allowed
to pass through the area. While he got one acre of land yet again the
power people have made mess of the land laws. He has got one fourth
of his allotted land as the person who had illegally grabbed the land
has manipulated things with revenue officials and done lot of changes
in the land map. ' We will fight against this and go to the court to
rectify it. They do not have anything to save their face after full
support from BJSA and the administration and still they wanted to delay
the process after many ifs and buts'. Chandrabhan has a sense of relief,
as he is leveling his land and cutting the unwanted bush and weeding
them out.

A Dalit woman Sukraji bi
is very happy. I feel powerful today she says. ' We will work harder
now and definitely grow on our land rather than working at some body
else's land. When I ask her about the caste equations and untouchability
in the village she says ' the upper castes now know that they can not
get in untouchability directly as they would penalized but they do.
When they want our votes in elections, they would come here, sit on
our charpoys ( cots) and eat with us but once that is over, they refuse
to sit with us and do not allow us the same at their place. She is happy
that the women will change as a woman and that too from her own community
is now heading the State'. How does she feel seeing a Dalit woman with
her head high rules the state, I ask. " yes, we are proud that
Bahinji ( elder sister, referred to chief minister Mayawati) is a very
strong woman. Her elevation to power will definitely help Dalits and
women to get their honour and pride.'

While there is absolute truth
in Sukraji's statement as here too in Rupchandrapur, it is women like
Renu who made it possible that the land is transferred to the Dalits.
She along with other women activists ensures that the officials do not
play foul under some pretext or others which she had been facing. Some
time, the illegal land grabber who was a local leader said that the
land is now under forest department as he has planted Babul trees while
on other occasion he made other pretensions. Some time it was provocations
and abuses while other time threatening them with dire consequences.
All this failed under the determined women's group of Bharatiya Jan
Seva Ashram. They now plan to speak to district authorities to grant
some funds under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to the
Dalits of Rupchandrapur to level their land and make it cultivable.

The change in power equations
have shown their first result though in a small way in Rupchandrapur
where the 74 Dalits are now enjoying their land, though with much difficulty
of crude exploitative social system which remain shameless even in these
times of democracy yet it shows that officials if work persistently
and honestly can really do the needful for the power. It is hard to
believe that they would change over night but strong signals from the
power structure can change their attitude towards rural poor. Another
important point for the rural poor is to grab the opportunity of whatever
comes in their hand and continue their fight for the rest as snatching
land from the hands of then power elite is very difficult as they have
not only administration and political leadership with them but also
make use of laws. It is advisable to continue our fight and make use
of whatever comes in our hand to make our way to the land we have waited
for so long. Land is not only matter of laws but a matter of attitude
of the law makers and law implementing agencies and sooner they learn
it the better it would be for the people. Rupchandrapur is a great lesson
for us in this regard.

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